The present invention relates as indicated to a reversible seat in general and to a smoothly and easily rotated reversible seat with readily implemented locking mechanism in particular.
Reversible seats have been used for years, primarily in inter-city buses. The reversibility of one or more seats in such buses permits custom seating patterns to be achieved for specified passenger load requirements and/or usages as often encountered in tour groups, for example. These reversible seats have included various structural forms to allow the seat to be rotated from a forwardly facing to a rearwardly facing position and vice versa.
For example, seats have been made reversible by completely disengaging the seat frame from the lower fixed frame, manually reversing the seat, and then reconnecting the seat frame to the lower frame. Alternatively, various structural means have been implemented between the rotating upper seat frame and the lower fixed frame to accomplish such reversibility, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,200,904; 2,372,495; 3,394,964; and 3,860,283 and Canadian Pat. No. 482,859. The various structural embodiments, which are employed between the revolving upper seat frame and the lower fixed frame or base in these patents, are relatively complex requiring specialized assembly, maintenance, locking and/or labor procedures to be used.
In addition to the reversal structure shown in the above noted patents, T-shape and Y-shape slot and roller interconnections have been disclosed for reversing car and bus seats as respectively shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,063,674 and 2,472,349. This type of interconnection structure is not quite as complex as the interconnection structure shown in the noted patents and should reduce some of the problems attendant to the use of that structure.